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Business Standard July 8, 2020 Megha Manchanda The Union government has started the process of monetising landholdings of state-owned telcos Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL). In a definite first step, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) has appointed consultancy firms CBRE, JLL, and Knight Frank to look at the feasibility of such a sale during the pandemic. The consultants will submit their reports by end of the month. The asset monetisation of BSNL and MTNL, estimated to fetch around Rs 37,500 crore. https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/govt-begins-asset-sale-process-for-bsnl-and-mtnl-hires-consultancy-firms-120070800053_1.html

Bloomberg Quint July 06, 2020 Advait Rao Palepu Paytm, along with its founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, will acquire 100% in Raheja QBE General Insurance Company Ltd, the company disclosed on Monday.  In a statement, Paytm said that it would acquire the 51% stake currently owned by Prism Johnson and the 49% held by QBE Australia in Raheja QBE General Insurance, subject to approvals from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India. According to a stock exchange notification, Prism Johnson will sell its 51% stake in the insurance company to QorQL for an aggregate sum of Rs 289.68 crore. With this acquisition, Paytm will enter into the general insurance business inorganically. The company had earlier applied for a standalone licence but will now withdraw that application, the person quoted above said. The new venture will distribute its policies through Paytm Insurance, a broking arm of the company, as well as through third-party websites. The group will

The Hill July 07, 2020  BRETT SAMUELS The White House has officially moved to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO), a senior administration official confirmed Tuesday, breaking ties with a global public health body in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. has submitted its withdrawal notification to the United Nations secretary-general, the official said. Withdrawal requires a year's notice, so it will not go into effect until July 6, 2021, raising the possibility the decision could be reversed. Sen. Bob Menendez (N.J.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, tweeted that the administration informed Congress of the withdrawal plans. "To call Trump’s response to COVID chaotic & incoherent doesn't do it justice. This won't protect American lives or interests — it leaves Americans sick & America alone," the senator tweeted. The formal notification of withdrawal concludes mo

The Indian Express July 8, 2020 Shubhajit Roy The Special Representative-level talks Sunday, following which  troops on both sides stepped back in the Galwan Valley , was proposed by Beijing after the June 15 incident in which 20 Indian Army personnel were killed in clashes with Chinese troops. The Indian Express  has learnt that the Chinese proposed the SR-level talks, along with the activation of other channels, to resolve the tense situation in the wake of the Galwan Valley incident. The Indian side maintained that diplomatic and military channels, including the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India- China  Border Affairs (WMCC), were “appropriate” to de-escalate the situation. But Beijing insisted on SR-level talks to make any meaningful forward movement. It was then that a meeting between Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval was scheduled. Following the talks Sunday, the Chinese Fore

Indian Express July 08, 2020 P Vaidyanathan Iyer The first thaw in the Galwan Valley is a tentative one and no one’s guessing how it will play out. With the India- China  face-off continuing along the border, can it be business as usual for a democratically elected government? In times like these, it may be instructive to refer to Adam Smith’s treatise, “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”. Defending  England ’s hugely discriminatory Navigation Act of 1651, which required cargo from British colonies to be carried only in British ships, Smith had said that defence is of much more importance than opulence. In simple words, national security takes precedence over welfare or prosperity of the people. This may sound antithetical to what the Scottish economist, philosopher and one of the earliest proponents of free trade stood for. For India, defence and welfare have always complemented one another. Since 1990-91, when New Delhi, forced by an economic

Indian Express July 08, 2020 Ritika Chopra The  United States  on Monday announced that international students  might have to leave the country  or risk deportation if their universities moved classes entirely online in the upcoming fall semester. Students attending schools offering “normal in-person classes” can stay, but they cannot take more than “one class or three credit hours online”. What do the new regulations by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement mean for Indian students? This, in effect, means Indians currently enrolled in schools or programmes that are entirely online for the fall semester will have to come back home. They can stay back only if they take alternative steps such as a move to a school that offers “in-person instruction” (read contact classes) or choose “appropriate medical leave”. Students, who had come back to India after the  pandemic  forced American campuses to shut down, will not be permitted to enter the US if their classes are ent

Hindustan Times July 08, 2020 Roshan Kishore The US government’s latest order on  foreign students  in the country — if their colleges are offering only online courses, they can no longer stay in the US — will adversely affect many Indian students. According to the 2019 Open Doors Report on the International Education Exchange, there were over one million international students in the US in the academic year 2018-19. India has the second largest share in number of international students in the US after China. Chinese and Indian students account for more than half of international students in the US. The number of Indian students in the US crossed 200,000 for the first time in 2018-19. This number was less than a 100,000 in 2012-13, the earliest period for which data is available at the Institute of International Education’s (IIE) website, which publishes the Open Doors reports. According to data from the US government, the number of active students from India in the U

Hindustan Times July 08, 2020 The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday filed a money laundering case against GVK Group, its chairman, G V K Reddy, his son, G V Sanjay Reddy, and others for alleged irregularities worth over Rs 800 crore in the Mumbai airport development, officials familiar with the matter said. The group also runs the airport. ED’s probe into the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act is based on a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) First Information Report (FIR) registered on June 27. The FIR named 13 people including the Reddys, the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), and companies that were given contracts at the airport. CBI searched the group’s premises in Mumbai and Hyderabad last week. The officials said ED, which has powers to attach properties during investigations, will examine the accounts of the companies and their transfer of funds to ascertain the alleged money laundering. A GVK spokesperson said they have not receiv

Hindustan Times July 08, 2020 Shankhyaneel Sarkar The Federal Trade Commission and the US Justice Department are looking into allegations that popular app TikTok failed to live up to a 2019 agreement aimed at protecting children’s privacy, according to two people interviewed by the agencies. The development is the latest bump in the road for the short video company, which is popular with teens. TikTok has seen scrutiny, including from the national security-focused Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, rise sharply because of its Chinese parent corporation. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday that the United States is “certainly looking at”  banning TikTok, suggesting it shared information with the Chinese government , a charge it denied. A staffer in a Massachusetts tech policy group and another source said they took part in separate conference calls with FTC and Justice Department officials to discuss accusations that TikTok had failed to live